Chrome
by tempest-races
Summary: She's trying to find the girl she was and forget the woman she's become. She's on the run to L.A. Will the people she meets there help her find who she was? What happens when two different worlds collide, again?
1. Default Chapter

Chrome  
  
Full summary: She's a Georgia Peach with a bitter taste in her mouth and a need to find who she was not who she is. She's on the run to California. Will the boy she meets there help her find the girl she was? They're from two different worlds. What happens when two different worlds collide, again?  
  
AN: This is just something I've doing. Chapter one here is all that is done and ready to go but I'll post it up as I get it written. Just don't count on it being too fast. ;) I likely have you all trained to that now anyway. I know, I'm horrible. And I will update RIDE someday, I just have writer's block for it right now and no time for my other stories either so it's the one that has sort of fallen by the weigh side. Let me know what you think....  
  
Chapter 1  
  
The day was hot, as days in Georgia often were. The road was long and winding as it trailed off toward the horizon. The scenery was bland. The yellow line down the centre of the snaking tarmac was winding lazily off into the distance over the hills.  
  
The car was red with a chrome grill and white wall tires on shiny wire wheels. It flew down a two lane road out of Atlanta at about 100 mph under the midday sun. A red Chevelle SS convertible, the top down, '400 turbo' transmission in third, exhaust pouring out of the dual tailpipes as the driver ran out of town.  
  
She'd picked the car for two reasons. Reason one was because it was as far from what her parents would pick for her as she could get. Reason two was because she'd been able to see herself in the chrome grill the way she knew she could be and not the way she was in that moment.  
  
She was sick of her life and ready to make a new one for herself.  
  
She was on a mission.  
  
A mission to remember the girl she had been and forget the woman she had become. She didn't like the woman much but she remembered the girl with fondness. The girl had known how to have fun. The girl had often lived in her own world and had been all the better for it. The woman was uptight and spent a lot of time angry. The girl saw the woman had her reasons, but that didn't mean the girl had to like it.  
  
She was from the coast of Georgia, where her family owned a large plantation and grew peaches and cotton. They were wealthy, but of course a true Belle didn't talk of such things. She'd become a true southern belle not by choice but out of necessity.  
  
She'd never lived the ladies lifestyle. It had never been her style. She'd grown up climbing their peach trees and wearing Levis. She'd never enjoyed belonging to 'the club' or hosting cotillions.  
  
She had never wanted to marry rich or do most of the other things her parents had planned for her.  
  
Then in the 10th grade she'd fallen hard for a boy from the next plantation over. Her parents had approved. The young man in question was from a 'good' family.  
  
That meant they had money.  
  
Being a good southern girl she'd held out against having sex with him when he'd pressured her. Good girls didn't do that till they were married. He'd eventually won her over and for a time she was happy with him.  
  
In time she'd found out he wasn't the person she'd thought he was but by that time she'd ended up pregnant at only 17.  
  
As soon as her parents and his found out they forced a wedding on the two children who'd managed to create another child between them. Neither of them wanted to be married.  
  
They were too young, too unsure of what they wanted out of life.  
  
All her parents knew was it wouldn't do for her to have a child without a husband and they'd hoped that the boy would become her husband ever since she'd started dating him anyway. It would be a case of the two wealthiest and oldest families in the area uniting.  
  
It hadn't been long after her marriage that her new husband had started to get violent with her. The way he'd been was a façade; he revealed his true colors as soon as the 'honeymoon' was over.  
  
It seemed he resented the loss of his freedom so much he was willing to take it out on his new wife. It didn't seem to matter to him that she was two months pregnant at the time. He'd hit her whenever the enormity of his life got to be too much for him to deal with.  
  
Then when she was 6 months pregnant he was arguing with her for wanting to go out and see her friends. He'd done his best to keep her confined to their house because he, in his childish mindset, thought his beautiful young wife was fat and ugly while she was growing thick with his child and he didn't want any of his friends to see what she looked like.  
  
His attitude didn't help her fragile self esteem any either. She was already upset about her growing belly. At 17 she was too young to really comprehend what was happening to her mind or her body as the hormones took over and the growing child swelled out her formerly flat stomach and small breasts.  
  
So she fought back for the first time since things had gotten so bad. She'd been getting ready to go, without his permission. They fought. It was the worst, loudest fight they'd ever had. It ended when he slapped her across the mouth.  
  
With a hand to her cheek in shock she stared at him with her blue eyes filling with tears. She didn't know why the fact that things were so far from right had just hit her in that moment but they had. They hit her like a run away freight train and she turned and ran from the room, seeking only to escape for awhile. She'd go to see her friends and if he didn't like it then that was just tough for him.  
  
He caught her at the top of the stairs and grabbed her arm. She spun around and said something childish and angry to him. She was, after all, not much more than an angry child in a situation she never should have been placed in.  
  
He took exception to what she'd said, as she'd known he would. He released her arm and shoved her backward with an angry curse. She steadied herself with one step back and thought she was fine but then she lost her balance once more. Only this time there was no step for her to catch herself on and she fell backwards down the stairs.  
  
It was a sickening feeling to fly head over feet over and over down the stairs. She passed out from the pain as she lay in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the stairs while her husband cried out how he was sorry and called 911. She knew things weren't right in the moment before she slipped into unconsciousness, and she wondered if they ever would be right again.  
  
She woke up several hours later in the hospital, wearing one of their cheap gowns with several machines making sure she was still alive and two catheters pumping fluids into her veins.  
  
She knew by the look on the faces of the family around her that the news would not be good.  
  
She'd lost the baby they told her. The fall had caused her to go into labour and the baby had been too undeveloped to survive. They'd done all they could to save the little girl but it hadn't been enough.  
  
For the first few hours she was inconsolable. The first thing she did was send her husband and his family out of her room. Her family assumed it was because of the loss of the child. And while there was sadness in her for the life of the baby daughter she'd never know the tears were because she was glad.  
  
Glad she wouldn't be a teenage mother, glad not to have something tying her to the man whom she hated, who had killed their child and could have killed her.  
  
She got out of the hospital a few days later and told his family and hers she wanted a divorce. She felt no reason to stay with a man she hated when there was not going to be a child.  
  
Her soon to be ex husband looked relieved. Both sets of parents looked horrified. Divorce was just something a nice southern girl didn't think about, let alone talk about or do. She waited till she was 18 and just did it herself.  
  
Her parents told her if she went through with it she was as good as dead to them and she took them to heart. She maxed out all her ex husbands credit cards and used the money to buy her current automobile and figured the rest would be travelling money.  
  
Having grown up on the Atlantic coast she'd always wanted to see the pacific. She turned the car toward California and put it in drive.  
  
She didn't know what was waiting for her in the west, but it couldn't be worse when what she was leaving in the east.  
  
Cerise 'Cherry' Jade Everett took the tie out of her hair and let the wind run its fingers through it as it rushed over the windshield and through the open windows as she sped down the blacktop with the top down.  
  
Things were looking up already. 


	2. Making Friends

Chapter 2 – Making Friends  
  
The trip across the US took Cerise 5 days. She didn't want to rush. She had lots of money and wasn't pressed for time. She left Georgia and headed toward Birmingham Alabama. It was the first major city on her journey and she planned on staying the night there.  
  
She arrived, ate and then got a hotel room. She expected her night to be sleepless, spent tossing and turning. She surprised herself by sleeping like a baby. She mused to herself that it only made sense in a lot of ways. None of her old worries applied to her life any more.  
  
She knew her worries would return; that her life had been too messed up to date for it not to have left her with some lasting effects, but for the time it took her to reach her destination she resolved to just enjoy life and be a teenager with lots of money and time on her hands.  
  
She left Birmingham after breakfast the next day and got onto I30, headed toward Jackson, Mississippi. She only made it half of those 1600 miles before she found a motel and stopped for the evening. After ten hours of driving she was too exhausted to do much more then fall into bed. She did manage to eat first.  
  
After Jackson her directions called for her to head toward Barstow California. She turned the car down I15. After another 10 hour day of driving she arrived. She was pleased to finally be in her destination state.  
  
After getting a room in another motel she went for a drive around the city. She didn't see much to interest her so she just went back to her room and watched TV till she fell asleep. She spent the next day hanging out in Barstow shopping and seeing the sights. She figured she'd stay there in Barstow one more evening and then head to Los Angeles.  
  
She only had about 5000 dollars left, so she knew she was going to have to get a job pretty quickly if she didn't want to live in a bad neighbourhood. She almost thought it would be fun to live in a less then affluent neighbourhood, somewhere with character. She'd never lived anywhere other then on her family's plantation complete with tennis court, swimming pool, and country club membership.  
  
She went to sleep thinking about her new life, and where she would live it. When she woke up the next day she threw on one of her only remaining clean tee shirts and a pair of well broken in blue jeans. She added a bucket hat over her pigtails and a pair of thick soled flip flops and she was ready to roll.  
  
She loaded her car and put the top down. Once that was done she headed toward Los Angeles. The rest of the drive took her about 3 hours to complete and when she pulled into LA she got promptly lost.  
  
She'd known L.A. was large, but the staggering size of the largest city in the USA was overwhelming to her. She somehow got on the 110 freeway and drove downtown. She was sure she looked foolish as she craned her head around trying to see everything there was to see. It was all going by so fast she was sure she was going to miss something interesting.  
  
She got lost totally in downtown L.A. but she was lucky enough to find someone who took pity on her and gave her directions toward an area of town with reasonably priced hotels. She ended up staying at a Comfort Inn because it was close to the airport and she knew she'd be able to find her way around from there. It was also the cheapest hotel she'd been able to find that wasn't reminiscent of something from a 70's slasher flick.  
  
L.A. was disorientating to her. It was so much culture, so much life, so much variety and she wasn't use to it. She didn't know how to process a lot of what she was seeing. She'd, despite recent events, lead a pretty sheltered life and a lot of what she saw in down town L.A. made her double take.  
  
She went back to her hotel room totally out of her element and scared for her future. She couldn't even find her way from her hotel to a restaurant, how was she going to find a permanent place to live or a job for that matter?  
  
She sat down on her bed in her room and fought tears. She was so overwhelmed what she'd run from and what she was facing now washed over her like a tidal wave. After wallowing in her self pity for another few minutes it occurred to her what she had to do to feel better.  
  
She had to go out and get blindingly, fall down dead drunk.  
  
She'd only been drunk once before and she hadn't even been that drunk then. But she remembered how nothing had mattered to her while she'd been intoxicated. It had all come back and then some the next day, and had brought with it a violent need to vomit and a pounding headache, but thinking back she had to think the hours of freedom had been worth the cost.  
  
Of course there were a few problems with her plan. One, she was only 18, far too young to get into any clubs, and two, she wouldn't have had a clue where to go anyway.  
  
But once her mind was made up there was only one solution. She'd have to try to get into a lot of clubs and hope one didn't ID her. She knew she could look older with the right clothes and makeup, she hoped she could pull off getting into a bar.  
  
She got ready in a fitted hot pink baby tee with a cropped waist line and little cap sleeves and added a pair of dark blue low rise jeans with a thick funky belt and no back pockets. She looked at her navel and wished she'd gotten it pierced when her best friend from Atlanta had. Cerise had been too scared of what her parents would do to her if they ever found out to do it.  
  
Once she was dressed she did her hair. She left it down in long, silky, slightly wavy strands down to her shoulder blades. She then moved on to her make-up. She did it heavy, but not outlandishly. She was harsher with the black eyeliner and mascara then she would normally have been. She added black eye shadow near her lashes fading to dark grey up to the crease of her eyelid. She had naturally flawless skin, so she just used a bit of translucent powder to her face, then bright red lipstick.  
  
She stood back to check out her results. She thought she could easily pass for 21 looking like she did. With that she picked up her keys and headed out of her room, taking only her room key card and 200 bucks. She hid 40 dollars of the money in her bra to be used for cab fare only.  
  
One of the only things she could thank her mother for teaching her was the lesson that if you went out to always make sure you had the money for a cab home if you should need it. That left her 160 dollars to get as drunk as she could. She thought it should be more then enough.  
  
On her way down to the lobby she ran into a girl who looked to be about her age who was wearing a hotel uniform. She stopped her hesitantly.  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"Yes?" The girl asked, smiling.  
  
"I have sort of a strange question. Um, do you know where would be a good place to go out if you, um, forgot your ID?" Cerise looked up guiltily after tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear.  
  
The employee smiled at Cerise knowingly. "Well, depends on the kind of crowd you want to run into."  
  
"Doesn't matter that much, a young crowd I guess." Not having much experience with bars Cerise didn't really know what to tell her 'informant'.  
  
"Go to Nitrous. You should get in looking like you do, and you'll find the kind of crowd you're looking for there. They're mostly young street racers and their girls."  
  
"Thanks, that sounds good. Will it cost a lot to get there in a cab?"  
  
"From here? Yeah, a bit. Like maybe 30 bucks."  
  
"Ok, that's a bit more then I hoped but still ok. Thanks." Cerise started to walk away.  
  
"Say, you in a big hurry to get there? It's only quarter to 8. If you wanna wait like 15 minutes you can come with me. I just gotta run home and change then I'm heading there myself. I have my car to get home and the club is only a 5 dollar cab ride from my house."  
  
"That would be so great, if you're sure you don't mind!" Cerise replied. She didn't get any sort of creepy vibes from the girl, who looked to only be about her own age.  
  
"No problem. The more the merrier. So, do you race?"  
  
"You mean cars?" Cerise asked.  
  
"Yeah silly, cars. Like in the street. You know, street racing."  
  
"No, I hardly even drive. I can't drive a standard at all."  
  
"Wow. My friends are gonna get a big kick out of that. We all race, or at least hang out and support the guys who do. What are you doin in L.A.?" The girl started off at a hundred miles an hour asking questions. She came up for air and caught the overwhelmed look on Cerise's face. "I'm Keira by the way."  
  
"Cerise. But everyone calls me Cherry."  
  
"Cool name. You wanna wait for me in the lobby? I'll be down in like 5 minutes."  
  
"Sure, see you there." Cerise answered and headed down to wait for Keira.  
  
When the other girl got off work they both headed out to Keira's car.  
  
"Wow, that's neat!" Cerise said when she saw Keira's car.  
  
"Naw, it's nothing really. Wait till you see the parking lot at the club tonight. It'll make my little baby here look like the family grocery getter."  
  
"This is still pretty cool." Cerise said as she slid into the car. "What kind of car is it?"  
  
"It's an Accord. You really don't know a lot about cars do you? Do you have a car?"  
  
"No, I know nothing about cars and I own a '70 Chevelle SS convertible."  
  
"You have got to be shittin me!"  
  
"Nope. I bought it for myself as a treat when I left home."  
  
"Nice treat. Not my style, obviously, but nice. Where are you from by the way, you sound southern."  
  
"I'm from Georgia originally." Cerise admitted.  
  
"You in to all that southern belle stuff?"  
  
"Not anymore." Cerise answered then turned her face to the passenger side window. Like Keira knew it was a sore subject she let it drop.  
  
"You planning on doing some drinking tonight?" Keira asked with a sly grin.  
  
"Oh yeah. You?"  
  
"Of course girl." They arrived at Keira's house and walked in.  
  
Keira living in the sort of place Cerise figured she wanted for herself. It was clean, but not too big, clearly lived in, and clearly shared with at least two other girls.  
  
"Sorry bout the mess." Keira told Cerise. "Have a seat."  
  
"Nice place." Cerise said as she sat down on the couch a bit nervously and crossed her legs self-consciously.  
  
"It's small but it has three bedrooms so none of us have to share. I live here with my two friends from high school. Housing is expensive in L.A. and we were lucky to get this place."  
  
"Yeah, I'm gonna have to start lookin for a place." Cerise said in her soft drawl.  
  
"You might wanna check out UCLA. People always have roommate wanted posters up over there."  
  
"Thanks for the idea, it's a good one. Can't stay in the hotel forever." 


	3. Brave New Girl

Chapter 3 – Brave New Girl.

After the girls had a few drinks and got to know each other a bit better they headed out. Keira's on again off again boyfriend Blaise was driving them down to the club that Keira had talked about so they wouldn't have to take a cab. Cerise had moments of clarity where she knew it wasn't smart to go off with strangers. However, she was sick of being the good girl all the time so she brushed off the little voice and resolved to enjoy herself.

Keira's two roommates had also joined the group and all the girls had enough liquor in them that they were not feeling any pain by the time they left the house.

Cerise was feeling so out of character. She was dressed like the old days, but she wasn't acting like the her of any days. She was never a big drinker, or a big dancer for that matter. While the other kids partied with liquor she'd been at home, writing in her journal and climbing trees. Now here she was getting drunk with strangers.

She'd much rather be in jeans and a tee shirt and smudged with dirt then dressed up in fancy clothes worrying about what would happen to them if she felt the inspiration to just throw herself down and write. She'd always wanted to be a author.

In her mind it would be the ultimate job. To work in a comfortable room of her own home, or for that matter where ever she wanted to thanks to modern technology. She'd be her own boss, no one would tell her what to do. She'd move to some dramatic place where it was beautiful in summer and snowy and wild in winter and she'd write.

She mostly had plots for romance novels in her head. She didn't know what made her think she, of all people, could write romance when she'd never so much as smelled the real thing, but she knew what she'd like. Even if she'd never had it first hand, she knew what would make her happy.

But first she had to make a new life for herself. Of course, she reminded herself, she was well on the road to getting started on that tonight. Or rather she would be, the next day, after she used this night to kill her old life and ring in the new one. With lots more liquor.

On that thought Blaise squealed his tires into the parking lot of a club called Nitrous. Keira hadn't been lying. The lot was filled with tricked out cars. Most of them had scantily clad women accompanying them.

"Wow." Cerise didn't have much to add to her comment. She was overwhelmed. "I'm underdressed. Or overdressed dependin on how you look at it." She drawled.

"Naw girl. Wait till we get inside. These girls are just the racer chasers. They all dress slutty to try and attract the eyes of the winning males. Not every girl in our scene falls in with them. You'll fit in just fine inside. Let's go in."

"You sure? I look country, like I just fell offa the turnip truck."

"Don't judge _you_ based on these skanks Cherry." Cerise nodded to Keira's comments.

The girls climbed out of the car and started toward the building. They got in the line-up for edmittance but since it was early they didn't wait long. The scene inside the club washed over Cerise and left her feeling even more out of her league. The walls were painted up with various car logos done in glowing paint so they seemed to have their own light sources under the black lights. The tables around the edges of the dance floors were lit from inside and were also in the shape and colours of the various car logos.

The main dance floor was done in squares that had LED lights in them, they flashed as they changed colours. It made the dance floor into a flashing rainbow checkerboard. There were girls wearing as little as the ones outside dancing all over men and each other and there were girls dressed more like Cerise and her companions, dancing in friendly groups. The former girls still outnumbered the latter, but Cerise didn't feel quite so out of place.

Keira leaned over so what she said would be audible to her new friend. "Let's go get a drink."

"Sounds good." Cerise replied in her soft Georgian drawl.

Both girls went over to the bar and ordered drinks. Then they leaned on the bars edge and just looked around the room, sipping on their blue lagoons. There was a rather rambunctious group of people holding court in one corner of the room. They looked like they were having a great time, as a family. There was a core group of people that didn't change even though other people came and went. There was a subtle ebb and flow to it, like the people had their own field of gravity.

"Who're they?" Cerise asked and nodded subtly at the group.

"They would be the Toretto gang." Keira replied.

"Gang?" Cerise asked, not thrilled to be introduced to her first gang so early in her L.A. experience.

"Not gang, like gang gang. They're a street racing gang. A team really. I guess gang wasn't the best choice of words. They're a team."

"There/s an awful lot of them." Cerise bit her bottom lip and glanced at the group of people still playing around with each other in the corner.

"Well, the big bald guy is Dominic Torreto. The Latin girl under his arm is Letty, his girl. The little Italian girl is Dom's sister Mia and the blonde guy is her husband Brian. The scruffy guy is Vince, Dom's best friend. The other guy is Leon, and last but not least is Jesse."

"That's all of them?" Cerise asked on a laugh.

"Some come and go but that's the main group, yeah." Keira joined her in her laughter.

"Cool. What do they do, other then race cars?"

"Dom owns a garage and a diner; they all mostly work with Dominic in either of his places. Some of 'em have girlfriends already some don't." Keira was vague.

"Ah see." Cerise said, curiosity about 'the team' playing over her features. "They sure do seem to hold court up heah."

"Yeah, that's them. Dom's the king of L.A. street racing so everyone looks up to him and sucks up to him too."

"Guess ah don't count since ah don't plan on racin' mah car."

"Everyone counts Cherry. You want social acceptance in this crowd, the fastest way is to get on Toretto's good side."

"Ah guess." Cerise answered softly and looked at Keira. "If ya wanna go dance, don't let me hold ya back. I can entertain mahself right here."

"I'm gonna go dance and you're gonna come wit me! I can teach you a few things." Keria threw back the rest of her drink and motioned Cerise to do the same. When Cerise complied Keria lead her out onto the dance floor.

As the evening wore on Cerise had more to drink and got more comfortable with the dances that Keira was showing her. She found she didn't need to buy herself much in the way of drinks as men were doing most of the buying for her. She looked a Keira in between songs.

"Ah can't drink anymore." Cerise fanned her face. Her accent was even more pronounced in her intoxicated state.

"You gonna be sick?"

"Ah don't think so, but ah just know ah can't drink anymore."

"I'm gonna go talk to a friend of mine for a second. You be ok here on your own?"

"I'm sure Ah'll be awright. Ah was gonna come alone after all."

"Ok, just don't talk to strangers!" Kiera laughed.

"Awright." Cerise agreed on a laugh of her own.

Cerise was leaning on the bar watching the crowd ebb and flow around her like water around a rock in the center of it's river when a strange man walked up to her.

He was older, rough looking. He looked her over from head to toe with his light eyes.

"Hello there." This new man said, smiling. Cerise didn't really like his smile, she couldn't put her finger on why. It occurred to her that it felt predatory.

"'llo." Cerise answered and looked away. She didn't want to show any interest, even though a part of her, the small part that wanted to start a new wilder life wanted to talk to this man, that small part that knew he meant trouble, and trouble might just be what she was looking for.

Keira noticed Cerise talking with a strange man but didn't really have a problem with it. She had forgotten how naive her new friend was in her own intoxicated state.

"How's it goin?"

"Aw'm fine." Cerise drawled.

"Henry." He stuck out his hand. Cerise shook it.

"Cherry." She introduced herself.

"Perfect." He smiled a wolfish smile, rather like a wolf after sheep. "Where you from?"

"Atlanta." Cerise told a small fib, not wanting to admit she was from the back of beyond.

"So. you here with anyone?" The man put his hand on the bar behind Cerise, bringing him very close to her, and she fought the feeling he was too in her space.

"Some girlfriends." Cerise answered, thinking she should have picked someone, like one of the well known people in the corner, and told this man it was her boyfriend.

"You wanna dance?" He smiled a genuine smile and it transformed his face from dangerous to sort of sexy. In an older man, 5 o'clock shadow sort of way. In short, the opposite of her ex.

"Ah suppose ah do." Cerise smiled and headed out onto the floor, her hand in his.

Keira looked up and saw Cerise was now on the floor with the man she'd been talking to. She, having fought with Blaise, was glad someone had a chance of going home with a chance of getting some and she didn't want to interfere.

One of the girls with the Toretto's looked up and saw the girl who'd arrived with Blaise's girlfriend dancing. The man she was dancing with wasn't good news. She elbowed her date.

"Leon!"

"Ouch, what did you do that for?" Green met green as Leon rubbed his ribs and looked up at his girl.

"See the girl with the caramel coloured hair out there with the guy who kinda looks like V?"

"Yeah, what about her?"

"I want you to go cut in on them."

"But she can't really dance. Look at them. If I want to dance with someone I'll dance with you." Leon said in his own Midwestern growl and pulled the girl down into his lap.

"She's new around here. She came with Blaise and Keira and I don't think she knows who she's dancing with."

"Well, who is she dancin with?"

"Henry James."

"Who's that?"

"Leads a bike gang known as 'The Reapers'. They're bad news Le. Real bad news. He'll chew that little thing up and spit her out. She can't be much more then 18."

"You're one to talk."

"Just go save her." She pointed in the general direction of the dancing couple

"You said the guy kinda looked like V. Not that he could be his freaken brother." Leon looked back around after looking at the man in question on the dance floor.

"They don't look that alike. Vince has enough sense not to let a retarded monkey barber do his hair."

Leon looked around. He didn't want to go out on the dance floor. He never had really liked to dance that much. He looked around his team. "I know!"

"I wanna _know_ why you're still not out there saving that girl from that madman."

"A sexy madman!" Letty broke in and Dom gave her a dirty look.

"A mad man that looks like my best friend." Dom growled. "You think he sexy too?"

"Of course not." Letty grinned at having ruffled Dom's feathers and sat back in her seat beside him.

"Send Jesse!" Leon said. "He likes to do that stupid grinding sort of dance they're doing anyway."

Jesse heard his name and looked up from his gameboy. Even in the middle of a hot dance club he couldn't bear to be separated from his computers. "Huh?" Jesse said as he looked up, having missed most of the conversation previous.

"Go cut in on that couple." Leon pointed them out.

"Ok." Jesse answered with a shrug, a result of the one track attention span he'd never been able to control or out grow. He jumped up and started to do a slinky sort of move out onto the floor. He stopped and turned back to Leon. "Am I after the man or the girl?" He gave a cheeky grin.

"Just go!" Leon laughed, and then reconsidered. "The girl!" He called after the again moving Jesse, who waved his hand over his head in acknowledgement.

"Is that smart?" Vince asked the group in general after Jesse had left.

"What?" Leon retorted.

"Sending the kid up against a guy as big as that guy."

"Oh shit." Dom answered and watched carefully to see if there was going to be trouble.

"Whatcha lookin for tonight girl?"

"Ah don't really know, Ah just went with what felt right tonight."

"Leave with me. I have my bike out front. We can go for a ride."

"Oh, Ah don't think so. My friends are here and Ah'm just gonna leave with them."

"Come on! Live a little. It'll be fun."

"Ah don't think so." Cerise said and Henry pulled her closer. She fought an urge to fight against his arms. She was out of her depth. She looked around for Keira to come save her but the other girl was no where in sight.

"Hey, mind if I cut in?" Jesse asked and then just did.

With a sensitivity to things around him that surprised his team and friends to no end he knew that this Henry was up to no good and the girl was out of her element trying to get rid of him.

"You forget you were supposed to meet me back at the table after you got your drink sweets?" Jesse asked the blue eyed girl like she was with him.

"The lady and I were making plans you little twirp."

"I don't think so. She came with me." Jesse smiled and started to subtly move his new found 'girlfriend' toward the safety of his team, where Dom and Vince had his back.

"You sure about that? She told me she came with girlfriends." Henry growled. Someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to look.

"It doesn't matter what she told you Henry, because she came with Jesse and they had a little fight. Besides, Chyna'd kill a little thing like her if she ever found out."

"That's not your concern." Henry snarled.

"I just made it my concern. The kid is my concern, so, so is his date." The slight blond girl told the huge man in front of her with unflagging confidence. "You got a problem with that? Cause if you do we can settle it now, or on the blacktop any time you want."

"Whatever, she's just a girl." Henry went to walk away, back to his reaper cronies. He looked back over his shoulder. "I won't forget this."

"Neither will I." The blond assured him with a glacier cold look and started to move Jesse and this new girl back toward their booth.


	4. New Friends

Chapter 4 – New Friends

"Ah don't know how to thank ya'll!" Cerise gushed as she was pushed into the middle of the Toretto fold. "Ah was tellin that man Ah was ready to go back to Keira but he just wouldn't listen to me at ahll."

"What possessed you to get up and dance with someone who looked like that?" Leon asked, hating it when his girlfriend used her dangerous face on anyone.

"Hey, I resent that!" Vince commented, remembering how everyone had compared the other man's looks to his. The group laughed at his discomfort.

"No, you resemble it!" Letty chuckled.

"Well anyway Ah'm glad ya'll saved me, Ah surely am." Cerise said and looked around the bar. The biker man had left with his friends, but she saw Keira looking around, presumably for her. "Ah suppose Ah should get back to mah friends."

"She'll find you here. Why don't you stay awhile?" Jesse asked, looking hopeful. He felt slightly responsible for the girl since he'd saved her from the man who'd been trying to force her out of the bar.

"Ah guess that would be ok if no one minds?" Cerise asked shyly, feeling safer in numbers then alone. She looked around and saw that Keira was back to fighting with Blaise. Since that didn't show any sign of ending any time soon Cerise figured she'd stick around with the Toretto team if no one had a problem with it.

"We don't mind." Dom said gruffly and went back to his drink.

"Yeah, have a seat." Jesse pulled out a chair. "Do you want another drink."

"Gosh no! Ah've had about anough." Cerise, still quite intoxicated giggled and sat in the offered chair.

"So, where you from?" Jesse asked, leaning forward, elbows on his knees as he watched Cerise.

"Georgia. I just moved here a few days ago." Cerise's eyes clouded over with the memories of why she'd left her home.

"Why'd ya move here?" Jesse asked.

"Seemed like a good idea at the time." Cerise answered. Jesse seemed to sense she didn't want to talk about it anymore.

"You up to another dance?"

"Ah don't know, Ah'm not very good." Cerise blushed.

"Aw, you were doing ok. Dance with me..." Jesse grinned boyishly. "Come on. You know you wanna."

"Well, ahlright." Cerise was coaxed into a smile and got up, taking Jesse's offered hand. She allowed him to lead her onto the crowded dance floor and started to try to follow his lead. He was dancing crazy and it finally just cracked her up, which was Jesse's intent. He wanted to see her smile again. He'd seen too much sadness in her smile and he wanted to help take some of it away. He succeeded when she laughed outright at his foolishness.

"What'dya think of that?" Leon asked the group in general. "Jesse hasn't taken to a girl like that since before..." He trailed off, not wanting to go into the recent near heartbreak his team had survived.

"She's cute. More the kind of girl I see him with then those fast skanks that he goes after around races." Vince's date spoke up.

"She's too sweet." Letty said, looking around. "This city's gonna take her in, chew her up and spit her out."

"Not everybody here is as hardassed as you Let." Vince teased and dodged Letty's flying fist as it flew at his shoulder.

"Watch that mouth boy." Letty was all bark when it came to her team, a fact she showed off by laughing while she took aim again.

"Well if this is the kinda lookin out for her Keira does then Cherry needs someone else to take care of her. You can't leave a girl that fresh alone in a club like this. She's as innocent as a new born." Brian added. He hadn't ever been a fan of Keira's man Blaise and he wasn't surprised they were fighting again instead of looking out for the new girl.

"She looks good with Jesse." Mia said, speculative look in her eye.

"Don't you start!" Brian laughed, knowing his girlfriend had a love of playing matchmaker.

"But Jesse needs somebody and who better then that sweet little Georgia peach?" Mia grinned.

"Someone he picks himself?" Brian asked.

"He did pick her. He could have let Leon go after her but he didn't. He didn't have to ask her out to dance again. They're cute together."

The team looked at Jesse and Cerise who were still doing a remarkably silly dance together on the floor. They were still laughing, and while they watched Jesse leaned in and said something to Cerise that made her laugh.

"They do look good together." Leon admitted. "It'd be nice to finally see him knowin how to treat a lady and not all over some skank up in the livin room."

"Oh my god I left Cherry alone all this time!" Keira wailed when she realized how long she'd been gone from her friend.

"So, she's a big girl, she'll be fine on her own." Blaise said, trying to keep Keira's attention since they'd just made up from their fight.

"She can't. Not really. She's pretty innocent." Keira looked around. "Where is she?"

"Wasn't she dancing with some dude? Maybe she left with him."

"God I hope not. He was too old for her. He was scary lookin." Keira started to walk off, trying hard not to panic. She'd never forgive herself if that man had done anything to Cherry. She sped up, still not seeing her new friend anywhere. Blaise was following her around.

"Keira, you hardly know her. If she left with that guy without telling you there's not much you can do about it."

"She wouldn't do that, not unless he made her." Keira looked around, almost frantic.

"Isn't that her dancing with one of Toretto's guys?" Blaise pointed off into the middle of the dance floor.

"Thank god she's ok. But she's with Jesse?" Keira wrinkled her nose. She hadn't seen that coming.

"I guess so. Now that you know she's ok can we go?"

"No, we can't just leave her here. It's up to me to get her home."

"Well let's ask the Toretto's if they'll get her home when her and Jesse are done dancing."

"I guess that would be ok." Keira caved reluctantly and headed over to the Toretto table. "Hey guys." Keira said to the team when she reached their table.

"Hi Keira. What's up? Blaise." Vince greeted their aquatances.

"Nothin man." Blaise answered. Keira shot him a quelling look. She wasn't totally pleased he was forcing her, more or less to leave early.

"I was wondering. I hate to ask but..." Keira didn't want to ask the Toretto's for a favor because she had nothing to offer them in return. They all just looked at her. "Well, is there any chance you all could make sure Cherry gets home? I hate to ask but I have to go now and she's havin a good time and all."

Dom looked at Keira, and because he had some knowlage of Blaise he knew what was up. Truth told Dom would rather not send someone as innocent of the world off with Keira and Blaise after they'd fought. "It's no problem. Someone will run her home."

"That's so great! Thanks so much." Keira called back at Dom as Blaise dragged her out of the club.

The team watched them go.

"How did a girl like Cherry ever hook up with someone like Keira?" Mia mused out loud.

"Keira's not so bad, if she'd ever wake up and realize her boyfriend is an ass." Letty answered.

Jesse and Cerise came back to the table soon after Keira and Blaise had left the building.

"Your friend had to leave," Mia told Cerise. "But don't worry, we're going to take you home at the end of the night."

"Was Keira ok?" Cerise looked worried, unsure why her friend would have to take off when it was only 1am, and figuring something bad had happened.

"Yeah, it was just that her boyfriend had to leave so she went with him. She didn't want you to feel you had to leave early. It looked like you were having fun." Mia smiled encouragingly.

"Oh Ah was. Ah just hope that Keira wasn't in any sorta trouble."

"She's fine." Letty reassured the girl. "Enjoy the rest of the evening and we'll make sure you get home."

"Ahright. Thanks so much." That settled Jesse and Keira headed out to dance some more.


End file.
